WHAT IS NATIONAL OWNERSHIP?

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1 WHAT IS NATIONAL OWNERSHIP? In 2005, the Paris Declaration established country ownership as a key principle of aid effectiveness whereby partner countries exercise effective leadership over their development policies and strategies and co-ordinate development actions. The measure of ownership was to be (i) the government s operational development strategy coupled by (ii) donor alignment on this strategy. Subsequent international meetings have broadened the concept of ownership to recognise the roles of other development actors such as civil society organisations, parliaments and local governments. Ownership is not a simple concept or one that is easy to measure. It is best thought of as a set of rights and responsibilities, including: the right to determine whether an initiative is required and to request assistance for it; the responsibility to make a tangible commitment; the right to exercise some control over the resources available and the benefits created; and the responsibility, together with donors, to determine whether an initiative has been successful and should be continued. 6 Accordingly, some countries may exhibit high ownership in one dimension, but little in another. QUALITY MANAGEMENT AND RESULTS-BASED MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS Introduction The main goal of Quality Management (QM) in Mine Action Programmes has been to provide confidence to the beneficiaries, the operator and the NMAA that clearance and quality requirements have been met and that released land is indeed safe to use. 7 Chapter 4 99

2 Quality means the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfils requirements. A guiding principle of quality management is its focus on satisfaction of the customer. When modern mine action first started the focus of quality management was primarily on land that had been subject to full clearance. The direction today is more comprehensive. It encompasses all parts and activities of mine action organisations to ensure that key principles of quality management, such as evidence-based decision making, continual improvement and customer focus, are enshrined in every aspect of the work. In the not-for-profit domain it is often necessary to differentiate between clients and beneficiaries, both of which can be seen as customers. An output from a mine action activity can be hard to tie to a broader outcome, such as a change in the number of casualties. The results-based management (RBM) approach provides a tool to help overcome this challenge. Mine action standards IMAS outlines that QM in MA consists of accreditation, monitoring and postclearance inspection, highlighting that not all elements will always be necessary to achieve confidence. Requirements are defined in other IMAS chapters: for clearance of land, for battle area clearance, for post-clearance inspections and sampling, for land release, for non-technical survey and for technical survey. IMAS originally treated cleared land as different from released land, but the standard now is that all released land should have the same characteristics: there should be a very high level of confidence that no hazardous objects are left in the ground when it is handed-over, within depth and item specifications. The challenge is how to achieve a similar level of confidence regardless of whether land has been released through non-technical survey (NTS), technical survey (TS) or clearance. Traditional approach to QM in mine action Traditionally definitions and descriptions of quality management in mine action focused on one output (cleared land) and limited application to a small number of core tools (accreditation, monitoring and post-clearance inspection). Interpretation of terminology was equally restricted. Quality Assurance (QA) was used interchangeably with the term monitoring and was taken to refer to field 100 Chapter 4

3 inspection visits. Quality Control (QC) was applied specifically to the inspection of cleared land prior to its handover. Today, clearer definitions of terminology and broader application of principles forms the basis for development of QMS in many countries, organisations, and institutions. QA has a formal definition of the part of quality management that focuses on providing confidence that quality requirements will be fulfilled, but is more easily understood as meaning pro-actively building quality and success into an organisation. The term monitoring is often used to mean a continuing process of observation and opinion-forming about an organisation and its activities. In the development sector it has a more specific meaning. In that context it refers to a continuing function that uses the systematic collection of data on specified indicators to provide management and other stakeholders of an on-going project, programme or policy with indications of the extent of progress and achievement of intended outputs and results, and in the use of allocated funds. 8 This is much more to do with the systematic tracking of key performance indicators (KPIs) than the narrow application of field inspection visits. QC is formally defined as the part of quality management focussing on confidence that requirements are fulfilled, but is easier to understand as checking that what you got is what you wanted. It can certainly be applied to the inspection of land. It can also be used throughout an organisation s processes wherever it is appropriate to check that products (such as trainees completing a training course, reports, or a purchased piece of equipment) meet requirements. Improved understanding of terminology and application of principles is of direct benefit to all mine action activities. It also ensures consistency with the way such terms are applied and understood in other sectors and industries. The main tools that have been used to gain confidence have also developed over time. In their traditional forms they consist of: Accreditation of operating organisations/implementing partners. Accreditation is normally performed by a national or UN-run MAC and ensures that organisations have, and apply, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) that satisfy the requirements of NMAS. 9 Monitoring through inspection visits by, or on behalf of, the MAC (often referred to as QA). Chapter 4 101

4 Post-clearance inspection of cleared land, combined with definitions of non-conformities, such as missed items (usually referred to as QC). Limitations of the traditional QM approach Traditional understanding and practice had a number of limitations: 1. It treated safe cleared land as the only product of mine action, whereas there can be a number of other products both in terms of released land (cancelled and reduced) and in terms of other processes integral to mine action (training, capacity development, mine risk education, stockpile destruction, priority-setting etc.). 2. The narrow focus on field monitoring inspections and post-clearance inspections, as constituting QA and QC, ignored the importance of broader application of quality assurance and control principles throughout an organisation s processes and procedures. 3. It did not address either quality-at-entry (ie project/programme design) or quality at the outcome level (ie do the outputs flow to the target beneficiaries and are they used in the expected way). 4. It might not be integrated with the country s overall system for standards. Comprehensive approach to QM To address some of these limitations, trends in the industry are to: 1. Increase emphasis on the application of comprehensive QA methods within an organisation (pro-actively building in quality and success), over the historical reliance on post-clearance QC inspection. 2. Make more use of the ISO 9001 QM standard and of business excellence models. 3. Revise IMAS (Post-clearance inspection) and IMAS (Monitoring of demining organisations) to make them adhere to broader QM approaches, and to ensure that other IMAS, as they come up for review and revision, exhibit relevant QM principles. 4. Adopt the ISO 9001 QM principles: } Customer focus } Involvement of people 102 Chapter 4

5 } Leadership } System approach } Process approach } Continual improvement } Factual approach to decision making } Mutually beneficial supplier relationships. The adoption of improved QMS and principles has important implications for improved effectiveness, efficiency and confidence within mine action. It can still be limited in that it addresses processes and activities up to the point where a product is delivered. Questions of whether an affected population benefits as a result of the products delivered by mine action operations fall outside the scope of normal industrial quality management systems. Management of the results of mine action work requires additional tools and techniques. Results-based management Results-Based Management (RBM) is a performance management system used when supplying public services, including through official development assistance (such as mine action). When selling to the private sector, people and organisations purchase goods and services to meet their own requirements, so the customer is both the client and the beneficiary. However, in providing public services, the client and beneficiary are often not the same. In mine action programmes, it is not always clear who the customer is. Is it the client (ie who pays, often a donor), the citizens (ie intended beneficiaries), or the recipient government (ie those responsible for the resolution of the landmine problem)? In providing public services, and particularly when these are financed by official development aid, defining customer satisfaction is often difficult. RBM provides an extra set of concepts and tools to implement QM when there are different categories of customers to satisfy. QM typically focuses on the quality of the products or services delivered by an organisation (its outputs). RBM widens the scope of the management process to include the changes (the outcomes) that result from the delivery of outputs. It helps address questions on whether a programme or project is making a difference, rather than simply delivering services or products. Chapter 4 103

6 A key component of RBM is performance measurement the process of objectively measuring how well an agency is meeting its stated goals or objectives. It typically involves: articulating and agreeing objectives; selecting indicators and setting targets; monitoring performance (collecting data on results); and analysing and reporting those results in relation to the targets. Performance measurement is concerned specifically with the production or supply of performance data. Performance management is the broad management strategy aimed at achieving important changes in the way government agencies operate, with improving performance (achieving better results) as the central purpose. In an effective performance management system, achieving results and continual improvement based on performance measurement is central to the management process. 10 There is a clear connection between QM and RBM. Performance measurement is concerned with measuring both implementation progress and results achieved. Implementation measurement addresses whether or not project inputs and activities are in compliance with designed budgets, workplans, and schedules. Results measurement considers whether planned results are actually achieved. Results are usually measured at three levels immediate outputs, intermediate outcomes and long-term impacts. This helps build agreement around objectives and commitment to the performance measurement process. 11 INFORMATION MANAGEMENT Role of Information Management in mine action Information management (IM) is fundamental to all mine action activities. Indeed it can be argued that land release is entirely an information management process, other than at the point of physical removal or destruction of devices when they are discovered. Everything else revolves around the collection of information, through non-technical and technical means, and its analysis to support decisions about which land is safe and which requires further investigation/action before it can be released. From this perspective a mine detector is simply a tool for information collection about land to support a decision as to whether it contains hazard items or whether 104 Chapter 4